The church can be traced back to 1887 when a
Congregationalist minister called John Bruce Wallace started a magazine called "
The Brotherhood" in
Limavady,
Northern Ireland. Wallace was influenced by the views of
Henry George and
Edward Bellamy. In 1891 Wallace moved to London and took over a derelict church in
Southgate Road,
Hackney, naming it "The Brotherhood Church." The
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party used the building in 1907 for their
5th Congress. Subsequent communities were established by a
Tolstoyan named John Coleman Kenworthy in
Croydon,
Surrey, in 1894 and
Purleigh,
Essex, in 1896. Aylmer Maude, on the other hand, believed the reason for the failure of the colony was due to Kenworthy's autocratic and irresponsible behaviour. In 1897 several members, some from a Quaker background, moved to
Leeds. The receipt of a legacy enabled the group to relocate to a seven and a half acre
smallholding at
Stapleton in 1921. Another Purleigh splinter group established the
Whiteway Colony in 1898, funded by a Quaker journalist. In 1934, the church was demolished and now a block of flats stands on the site. ==Stapleton Colony==